Portsmouth council votes to make play parks more accessible
Many of the council's 124 parks contain at least one piece of inclusive equipment, such as adapted swing sets, trampolines and wheelchair-friendly roundabouts, the council said.
But Sophie said despite new equipment being added, children like her daughter still were not able to physically access it because of the woodchip flooring. "Pretty much all of the Portsmouth parks are on woodchip," she said. "So, for wheelchair users, or those that use walkers - they can't get to that equipment."Woodchip is not wheelchair friendly due the loose, uneven surface, and government guidance states that it should not be used for accessible surfaces."They've spent a lot of money, but haven't done a particularly good job," she said. "Portsmouth City Council need to start holding their own public consultations before they spend money on making mistakes."
Labour councillor Charlotte Gerada tabled the motion after meeting with Sophie. She said she had heard from many other families facing the same barriers and wanted the council to push up its standards. But she said replacing the woodchip could be "very costly", and they were not expecting every single park in the city to be made accessible due to a lack of council resources. "We understand it's expensive to put a playpark in and equipment isn't cheap, when new equipment is being rolled out or new parks are being put in, inclusive design should be at the heart of it," she said.
At the council meeting, Ms Gerada said the council had consulted play experts - specialist council officers - about the parks' equipment. "But the play experts are children," she said. "Other nearby towns like Fareham and Havant do have much more accessible playparks."There's still very little, minimal, equipment in Portsmouth."A city council spokesperson said: "Over the past two decades, Portsmouth's play spaces have been transformed, with more diverse and inclusive equipment, despite no central government funding being made available for the past 16 years."
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